By Manish Chand (14:17)
Malula (Syria), April 22 (IANS) Far from the sounds of
gunfire and civil conflict that embroil Syria lurks an oasis of faith
and miracles in this tiny village perched on the rugged mountains. It's
one of the last places on earth where the Aramaic language Jesus Christ
spoke still lives on the tongue of its inhabitants.
Barely a
45-minute drive (around 50 km) from Syrian capital Damascus, that is in
the crosshairs of frenetic global diplomacy, Malula, which in Aramaic
means "entrance," transports you to a self-enclosed world of belief,
miracles and divine mysteries.
"Welcome to the place where the
language in which Jesus Christ spoke is still alive," Sister Georgette,
clad in black robes, told this visiting IANS correspondent, ushering us
into the Convent of St. Serge, a 4,000-year-old monastery that sits atop
a rock cliff 5,000 feet above sea level.
Inside the elegantly
restored Byzantine interiors are icons of Christ, his face ennobled by
suffering and redemptive suffering for mankind, and the Virgin Mary. In
front of the altar, she recites "The Lord's Prayer" in Aramaic.
Malula
is among three neighbouring villages where Aramaic is still spoken by
around 18,000 inhabitants. The other two places which boast of a living
linguistic connection with Christ are Bakhaa and Jabadeen.
Malula
is a microcosm of this multi-religious mosaic of a country embroiled in
international headlines for being the new epicenter of Arab Spring-like
protests against the long-standing regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Walking around amid proud believers and the keeper of an ancient legacy
amid exhilarating mountain air, one would not know that barely a few
kilometres away in Homs, the government forces are battling out
protesters in a fierce battle for power.
The holy hush that
inhabits this picturesque place, made famous by Mel Gibson's film "The
Passion of the Christ", is, therefore, all the more striking.
Aramaic,
the Jesus dialect, is imbibed as a mother tongue and children go on to
learn Arabic, the language spoken in most of Syria, only in schools.
Sadly, the oral tradition predominates as none of them can write in
Aramaic, the language of sacred revelations.
"It passes from generation to generation, but we don't know how to write," Mikhal, a 50-something resident, told IANS.
Elsewhere
in Syria, where Christians comprise nearly 10 percent of the
population, even the ancient churches conduct services in Arabic. But
finding the alphabets and script of Aramaic are not a lost cause,
efforts are on at both individual and state level to resurrect the
language in which Jesus probably spoke to Lazarus to wake up and walk
with him.
The government has funded an institute to revive the written Aramaic and to teach the younger generation this sacred tongue.
George
Rizkallah, a 65-year-old retired local schoolteacher, has started a
school to teach local children the ancient language. He is finding new
ways to resuscitate the language and has been composing Aramaic songs.
The language will survive, but we need to find ways to preserve this
ancient tongue, he said.
According to Yona Sabar, a professor of
Semitic languages at the University of California, Los Angeles, the
three villages represent "the last Mohicans" of Western Aramaic, spoken
by Jesus in Palestine two millennia ago.
People of Malula are hoping that when Jesus returns, he will speak to them in their native tongue.
(Manish Chand can be contacted at manish.c@ians.in)